Latest on Omar Bolden
The recruitment of Ontario (Calif.) Colony defensive back Omar Bolden gets more interesting by the day. Thursday we reported USC was coming in for a home visit and if offered, Bolden would likely trip this weekend. Here's the latest.
We talked with assistant coach John Brown, who is in charge of overseeing the recruitment of Bolden to find out where things currently stand with the talented cornerback.
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"It has been a very interesting recruitment," Brown said. "Omar has made no secret from day one how much he likes SC and that is where he has always wanted to go.
"Originally, the coaches said they couldn't offer Omar because of his grades. He worked his butt off this year and just got his report card back from this last semester and had all Bs. I told everyone he was going to make it and he's right where he needs to be right now.
"The frustrating thing for Omar was he felt he was being slow played the whole time from the SC coaches. They would say if he did such and such, they would offer and it never came. For the most part, I don't think he cared, he liked SC so much that he just overlooked it.
"I think recently it kind of hit him that he wasn't really a priority to them. He would read about how half the staff including Coach Carroll went for a home visit to see Anthony Gildon or Joe McKnight or Marvin Austin, a lot of different players.
"No one from SC ever came over to Omar's house until last night and Coach Watson was the only coach who came over. In the meantime, Coach Riley and three or four other coaches including the DB coach at Oregon State have been to the house.
"Coach Erickson and three or four other coaches at ASU came over. Omar is a cornerback and has never really talked to Coach Seto, who coaches the DBs at SC. If you really want a player, don't you eventually want the position coach to start talking to the player?
"That never happened. When Coach Watson came over last night, he said they weren't ready to offer but could have an offer by Sunday or Monday or by Signing Day. That turned Omar off a little and was basically the final straw for him to see where he stood.
"Then today, we were at the school and Omar gets a call from Coach Watson saying he's standing in front of his house with a car ready to pick him up for his official visit. We all just looked at each other like, 'are you kidding me.'
"They never mentioned anything about a visit, in fact it never came up during the home visit. So Omar told him he wasn't interested. Watson said Coach Carroll was going to be calling Omar later in the day but I really don't think he'll visit SC, in fact I would be shocked if it happened.
"Right now, Omar's ready to focus on making a decision between Oregon State and Arizona State. He's going to announce on Fox on Signing Day so he has a couple of more days to figure this out and pick a school."